belti02Here in Europe, we don’t have ski patroll like in the US here it’s just a type of safety crew that brings injured people into the hospital, and the things i heard about the US is more like a type of police mixed with a safety crew, like i heard that they take passes if you do dumb shit and give you tickets if you go out of bounds, here going out of bounds is completely fine, and the only one’s who can take your pass are the liftys and they never take them only if you are disrespectful to other skiers or do really dumb stuff on the lift
I always hear this sentiment but what you’re describing you have in Europe is literally ski patrol in 90% of resorts in NA. Smaller resorts on the east coast sometimes have volunteer patrol or “mountain safety” on a power trip that enforce codes.
in all my years of patrolling I’ve clipped a handful of passes and only for one reason- cutting into closed in bounds avalanche terrain, which you don’t really have in Europe. Ski Patrol at large mountains is not only in charge of on piste trail work and first aid, but Avalanche mitigation. We take responsibility for a lot of terrain that you’d call “off piste” and mitigate that terrain to open it to skiiers when able. People ducking ropes and entering high risk terrain that we are liable for and constantly beat the shit out of with explosives is grounds for a refusal of service in the form of pass cutting, no? When people leave resort boundaries to go ski the sidecountry they within their rights to do so and are on their own. (Though if people rock their shit near our boundary we participate in SAR efforts when possible)
police behaviour outside of that instance is sometimes due to insurance liability depending on the local laws, (tree skiing is not allowed at some east coast resorts because of liability) but most often a fringe side of patrollers LARPing because they have nothing better to do. If people cut into runs that aren’t avy closed, I do not care. They’re usually closed because they suck, not because we’re hiding the fun. We have fired volunteers for talking down to guests.
I have patrolled at a few big mountain resorts in Canada, Monashees and Rockies. when I started patrolling, my responsibilities were trail work, and getting people down the mountain and into an ambulance. Sound familiar? Then I got into AC and my job was all that and forecasting/mitigating avalanches in bounds. We wear many hats, but police officer is not one of them.
